That’s how Jesus describes our life on earth. Fleeting. Like a flower that blooms and then withers. At sixty years of age I can tell you that time doesn’t just seem to go fast. It is going fast. Like the Rolling Stones sang a life-time ago, “Time waits for no one.”
So how do you spend your day, a day that could be your last? Do you think about God at all? Do you consider eternity?
A. W. Tozer says:
“What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. Worship is pure or base as the worshipper entertains high or low thoughts of God. The most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.”
I believe it was also Tozer who said, “In all disobedience there is a high opinion of ourselves and a low opinion of God.”
I encountered a man just yesterday who says to himself that even though according to Jesus this man is a liar, an adulterer, and a murderer. Even though he does not always love his neighbour as he ought, and even though he does not love God at all let alone love God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength, this man thinks that God should make an exception in his case because others, such as myself have done more wrong than he has.
Isn't that human nature though? Even for those who deem themselves logical and rational thinkers, when judging our degree of "goodness" we always, always, always compare down, to those who are worse than we are. We judge others by their behaviours while judging ourselves by our intentions.
This man is just moments away from meeting his Maker yet he spends his days that are like a vapour thinking about everything except where he’ll spend eternity.
Most of the people who ignore eternity and deny God consider themselves to be very logical and rational people. We all know at some level that we will not live forever; that we could die today. But very few of us live as though we know that for a fact. A study from a couple years ago found that all of us struggle with a pattern of thought that goes like this. Regarding something bad happening we think:
. It won’t happen
. If it does happen it won’t be very bad
. If it does happen and it’s bad it won’t happen to me
. If it does happen to me and it’s bad, there’s nothing that I could have done about it anyway.
Jesus said, “Whoever believes in Me is not condemned, but whoever does not believe that I Am who I say that I Am stands condemned already.”
That's because, as atheists correctly say, we all begin life as non believers in God. We are all born in a state whereby we refuse to be accountable before our Creator.
That's why John 3:36 says, “Whoever believes in Jesus has eternal life but whoever rejects Jesus will not see life for God’s wrath remains on him.”
If we do nothing about our broken relationship with God, our default setting will ensure that we are forever separated from God.
Unless you have entered into a healed and forgiven relationship with your Creator, something bad beyond all imagination is about to happen to you.
The good news is that there IS something that you can do about it.
You Creator says, “You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”
Your Creator says, “You are destined to die once, and then judgement.”
Do you live as though it’s true?
Or do you say, “It won’t happen. And if it does happen it won't happen to me. God won't judge me according to His standard. Instead He'll use my standard of right and wrong; He'll see that I've been better than most and then He'll make an exception in my case.”
Is that the kind of logic by which you live?
Is that how you rationalise ignoring your Creator?
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Once the brain is dead, there are no more thoughts of anything beyond this real.
ReplyDeleteTo prove this, if you've ever been knocked unconscious, there are no thoughts of a god of any kind.
When you sleep, which is semi-conscious there are no thoughts of any gods.
When a person goes under anesthetics, there are no thoughts of any gods or of anything, therefore once the brain is dead, the mind has no thoughts ever again of anything.
The only reason you think that a god exists is because you have been indoctrinated by other humans to believe that a god exists.
No one comes into this world with a preconceived notion that a god exists.
Depending upon the geographical location on this planet in which you are born, will determine which god you were to taught to believe exists.
Had you been born in Iraq, you would be praising Allah every breath, as you do jesus by having been born in the usa.
Had you been born in South America, you would be praising Mary every breath, because you would have been raised a catholic.
This is something you cannot honestly deny.
ciao
real supposed to be realm
ReplyDelete"Jesus said, “Whoever believes in Me is not condemned, but whoever does not believe that I Am who I say that I Am stands condemned already.”
ReplyDeleteThat's because, as atheists correctly say, we all begin life as non believers in God. We are all born in a state whereby we refuse to be accountable before our Creator.
That's why John 3:36 says, “Whoever believes in Jesus has eternal life but whoever rejects Jesus will not see life for God’s wrath remains on him.”
So all murderers, child molesters, liars, thieves, adulterers, that ask for jesus' forgiveness will be saved, but those who have not committed any crimes against another human being and do not believe in jesus will be sent to hell.
So it would be better to have committed a crime against another human being or society and ask jesus for forgiveness, than to live a decent life without harm to another human being or society and not believe in jesus and be sent to hell?
That's the problem with christianity, it's conditional love, true love has no conditions no strings attached!
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"That's because, as atheists correctly say, we all begin life as non believers in God. We are all born in a state whereby we refuse to be accountable before our Creator."
This is not true, we do not refuse to be accountable before a creator!
We have not seen any evidence for a creator, and christians cannot supply any evidence outside or beyond their book of written words by men.
You quote John, Mark, Matthew, Luke, etc. yet your bible god nor jesus wrote one word of the bible, surely a god who can create the entire universe in just six days could have written a book about himself, this would have been such a simple task as compared to creating the universe.
It also took 40 days and nights for your bible god to write down just 10 little commandments, why did it take him so long to write 10 little verses when he supposedly created the whole universe in just six days?
An Anon said...
ReplyDeleteSo it would be better to have committed a crime against another human being or society and ask jesus for forgiveness, than to live a decent life without harm to another human being or society and not believe in jesus and be sent to hell?
I like that question, because from the recent tread that Thesauros did not reply to; it is obvious that for him, yes, it is the case, whether he wants to admit it or not.
He slept with too many women to remember the count; something I despise so much that you cannot even imagine how disgusted I am to have read that. Yet, according to HIS beliefs (how convenient) we are ALL going to hell because we do not believe Jesus was the son of God.
Of course, we all wish we would believe in a way, why not? it's so easy to just accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, walk the Earth as a brainless zombie who acts as the Bible says (when it suits you) and that's it: Heaven for eternity! Youhou!!
When you don't believe in God on the other hand, you see what's going on around you and wonder what you can do to make it better while enjoy it yourself as well. Of course that's not everybody's goal but at least that's mine and most people share it I think, well, I hope... what do you want, I am an eternal optimistic...
No one will be in hell who doesn't deserve to be there.
ReplyDeleteNo one will be in heaven who does deserve to be there.
And what "tread" have I ignored?
"He slept with too many women to remember the count; something I despise so much that you cannot even imagine how disgusted I am to have read that"
ReplyDeleteSettle down ya prude! You know, Hugo, besides it being profoundly judgmental, you're being upset by what were once my sexual behaviours is very odd for a moral relativist. After all, I and the women that I was with were merely adhering to what was considered acceptable in that culture. I assure you, it was nothing predatory on my part. “If you can’t be with the one you love, baby, love the one you’re with.”
Regardless, I thought that’s how atheists determined right and wrong; what the culture, the community, the society says is right is right. Not so?
I mean, we were going against what Christian values and morals taught. How can that be wrong?
I mean, we were going against what Christian values and morals taught. How can that be wrong?
ReplyDeleteIf that's a joke it's a pretty good one; I am afraid it is not though :P
lol
Anyway, it shows that you have a very limited thought process when it comes to morality.
I agree with the fact that you did not rape anyone, or that you did anything illegal, my point is that, personally, find people who sleep with many people disgusting.
Sex for me is not something that is as pleasant when it's not part of a relationship, I said that already, and I feel like people who sleep with as many people as possible are missing something... just an opinion. But it goes a bit farther, because I tend to generalize and imagine the kind of people who do that, and that's why I also say that you seem to be a much better person now.
Regardless, I thought that’s how atheists determined right and wrong; what the culture, the community, the society says is right is right. Not so?
ReplyDeleteNo, it's always a matter of personal opinion, personal values. We are, each on our own, individual judges of what's wrong or right.
Then, as a society, we share common values, we try to build laws so that things don't get out of control. But we also have a sense of general agreement for things that don't require laws, because, again, we share many common values as a whole. Not cheating on your partner is one of these. It's not illegal, but most people agree that it is immoral.
Except those people who believe that open marriages are better than traditional marriages and for those people, open marriages are right.
ReplyDeleteOh, and ya, that thing that I said above was a joke.
Sorry for the break. I had to get the kids off to school.
ReplyDelete"No, it's always a matter of personal opinion, personal values. We are, each on our own, individual judges of what's wrong or right.
Then, as a society, we share common values, we try to build laws so that things don't get out of control. But we also have a sense of general agreement for things that don't require laws, because, again, we share many common values as a whole."
And that is exactly why atheists can never pronounce another person is doing something wrong. All atheists can do is say, "I don't agree with what you're doing."
The people in Muslim countries use exactly the criteria that you stipulate. To "keep things from getting out of hand" they've decided as a community that women should only show their eyes an not go out of the house without their husband on tow. On atheism, might equals right.
It's the same for Germany. The community made up of individuals came to a place where the majority decided life would be better if no Jews existed. And all an atheist can say is, "I disagree with you - but you might be right."
Sadly, I think most of the world would agree with you. If Hitler had stayed within his own boarders he could still be roasting Jews, in much the same way that we tolerate the genocides taking place in Africa.
As the Buddhist saying goes, "The tears of another man are just water."
Oh, and ya, that thing that I said above was a joke.
ReplyDeleteGood :)
And that is exactly why atheists can never pronounce another person is doing something wrong. All atheists can do is say, "I don't agree with what you're doing."
I don't see the difference!
My point is that whether something is wrong or not is completely dependend on the opinion of the individual making the statement.
Let's look at the examples to try to make it clearer since the ones you give are all good. We, as individuals, agree that Muslims or Hitler do/did terrible things regarding woman/jews.
How can that be? we both claim to have different sources of morality. Perhaps because our sources are not as different after all...
Let's try two other examples to see where it does not work anymore.
1) Slavery is ok.
2) Homosexuality is wrong.
Why do you agree with the second one only?
Why do I agree with none?
Think about that...
“My point is that whether something is wrong or not is completely dependend on the opinion of the individual making the statement.”
ReplyDeleteAnd I believe that it is dependent on the opinion of our Creator.
When I was living the kind of life that disgusts you so much, you and our Creator were correct in pronouncing it wrong. I thought that how I was living was not wrong. My opinion, Hugo, was wrong no matter how convinced I was that it was right and good.
Millions of people believed that Hitler was right in his solution to the social problems.
Even if every person in the whole world thought that Hitler was right, he / they / us would be wrong; wrong because God says that it is wrong.
Even when people twist the words of the Bible to justify their lifestyle (eg. Jonathan and David were homsexual lovers) that doesn't make it right. Even if everyone in the world decide that it is right, it won't make it right.
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“Perhaps because our sources are not as different after all...”
Well, if Creator God did not exist then they wouldn’t be different at all.
Hugo, there is not one item on the Ten Commandments that if adhered to by the majority of the people in the world wouldn’t make our planet a better place to live. Tha'ts because our Creator, our Manufaturer knows what's best for us.
One of the reasons that I have the freedoms that I’m describing in the series “Because . . .” is that I don’t have to follow my opinion, even when it screams nonsense like, “Anything that feels this right can’t be wrong.”
When I lash out at some atheist and say mean things, no matter how right it feels in the moment, no matter how I justify it, (“He started it,” “What I’m saying is true,” “She’s not going to change anyway so what does it matter,” etc.) no matter how much my opinion says that it’s right or ok, it's wrong and it’s wrong because our Creator says that it’s wrong.
Slavery is wrong and homosexuality are wrong.
I know that they’re wrong because the Bible says they are wrong. In fact we're told, in Timothy I think, that there will be a special punishment or slave-traders.
Even when the majority of Americans held opinions (individually and as a community), that slavery was good and right and acceptable, it was still wrong.
And I believe that it is dependent on the opinion of our Creator.
ReplyDeleteSo it's not objective; great, we finally agree that literal objective morality does not exist ;)
..wrong because God says that it is wrong.
...
Slavery is wrong and homosexuality are wrong.
I know that they’re wrong because the Bible says they are wrong. In fact we're told, in Timothy I think, that there will be a special punishment or slave-traders.
You know the Bible more than me but I think that if you look into Exodus, right after the ten commandants, like 1 or 2 pages farther if I remember correctly, you will see other principles that God gave to Moses, concerning the regulations regarding slavery... He does not condemn it at all; the God of the Bible seems to endorse slavery.
What about Timothy? can you tell me where to look exactly for that passage? I am curious honestly, I have never heard of one passage in the Bible saying that slavery is wrong...
Even when the majority of Americans held opinions (individually and as a community), that slavery was good and right and acceptable, it was still wrong.
They thought it was right; we think it was wrong. We cannot say if it was objectively right or wrong. It is and will always be an opinion based mainly on the historical context in the case of slavery.
Nowadays, we share this principle, mostly, that all humans are equal and should be treated with respect. Unfortunately we are far from that in reality but at least slavery, which is the total opposite, treating humans as property, is mostly gone. Actually some people consider minimum wage as close to slavery, but that's another story ;)